Australia senator’s 3 election wins officially didn’t happen

Australia senator’s 3 election wins officially didn’t happen

Photo by Darrian Traynor/Getty Images

CANBERRA, Australia — The deputy leader of an Australian political party has announced he is ending his nine-year career in Parliament because he has discovered he has technically never been a senator.

Scott Ludlam, the 47-year-old deputy leader of the minor Greens party, said Friday he was “personally devastated” to learn that he is a citizen of New Zealand as well as Australia, which makes him ineligible for the Senate job he has held since July 2008.

The constitution states that a “citizen of a foreign power” is not eligible to be elected to the Australian Parliament.

While lawmakers have discovered they were technically ineligible after elections in the past, Ludlam says nine years later seems to be a record.